


Not as Good as You

by submarine_allmighty



Category: Grim Fandango
Genre: Fluff, Interspecies Friendship, Interspecies Romance, M/M, autistic characters
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-07
Updated: 2018-05-07
Packaged: 2019-05-03 14:34:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,241
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14571075
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/submarine_allmighty/pseuds/submarine_allmighty
Summary: Lupe helps Glottis confess something to Manny. Set Year 2.





	Not as Good as You

**Author's Note:**

> It was originally written in Russian by me and translated by me. Feel free to ask for the original, it's 100% better.
> 
> I headcanon both Lupe and Glottis as autistic. They display canon autistic traits so I didn't change anything honestly.

Piano keys fell through under his fingers, making a sound in a such right, such soft tone that it didn't even require getting used to. The keys were under the perfect tension, in a right sound spectrum, and everything came in resonance, and nothing needed to be added, it was already calm. He finally started getting used to everything, at least during the time he was pressing a sequence of keys and listening to music, closing his eyes.

Lupe laid in Glottis' lap and listened, shaking her legs. The pressure she was making was enough and not very overwhelming, so Glottis didn't want to argue with her position choice. So they agreed it's a nice way of communication, too.

Lupe lightly poked Glottis' abdomen to attract attention to herself. Judging by the displeased purring, Glottis still didn't like it, but Lupe simply didn't imagine any other way to start a conversation (the ones that Manny was suggesting seemed incredibly ridiculous). Oh, and she liked touching soft things. 

"Will you let me play?" Lupe asked hopefully. "I still remember a few songs!"

"No!" Glottis was immediately distracted from his instrument. "I can't let you play on _my_ piano!"

Lupe didn't have time to object (well, she could: she memorized social norms by the films she watched during her lifetime and was retelling them to Glottis who didn't understand a thing and couldn't argue) as Manny came into their little conversation. Glottis loved talking with him, but it was completely different than with Lupe. They were relaxing together, if talking could even be relaxing for any of them. There was no need to think of anything unnecessary, analyzing your own reactions or, even worse, the reactions of your companion. They could also not talk at all and just sit near each other, or, if desired, negotiate using Lupe's notebook (Lupe is rocking back and forth from boredom and impatience while Glottis is sketching just another modification for the Bone Wagon, and upon recieving the project writes him a big «AMAZING!» at the bottom of the page, decorated with stars and hearts).

Communicating with Manny wasn't like any of this at all. He genuinely tried to be understanding and patient, but it was still harder with him, and not even because he was saying a lot of weird things that were embarrassing to ask to explain, and Glottis always missed Manny's reactions, and Manny — his, and sometimes it was very embarrassing for both of them. They just decided it's the thought that counts. So minor misunderstandings were nonsense, the mixture of worry and happiness upon every Manny's word, the mixture of excitement and anxiety upon every chance to spend time with Manny, the mixture of something strange upon every one of those strange metaphors that Manny always said were much worse. Through some miraculous means Glottis learned from Lola, who liked taking pictures of him with ships, that he was "in love" with Manny and dealing with it is a bit harder than dealing with love for cars.

An yeah. A lot harder.

"What's the matter? It sounded pretty good, actually." Manny pointed out, going down the stairs. "Not as good as you, of course."

Glottis' ears twitched slightly. He still didn't know how to respond to such things, or he just couldn't figure out due to awful flusteredness, so he... began purring, drumming the piano cover with his fingers. It was the only thing that fully expressed that chaotic mixture of feelings he was experiencing but with all desire couldn't put into words, only into sounds, motions, just as inordinate as the things they were made for.

"And not as adorable." Manny chuckled, passing through Glottis and Lupe, who was also giggling, waving to Manny.

When Manny leaved to settle something in the casino, and Glottis calmed down a little, Lupe finally asked a very important question.

"Do you think he flirted with you as a friend or romantically?"

"You don't flirt with your friends, do you?" Glottis responded skeptically. It was one of the few times he questioned Lupe's social knowledge.

"Well, Lola said my hat is beautiful, but it was friendly! Because she loves Olivia. She would most certainly never flirt with her as a friend! Get it?" 

"Not really! But Manny doesn't love Olivia, so I'm fine."

"I don't get it too. It made much more sense when Lola was explaining. I'll remember something else... Oh! In one movie they were giving postcards to the people they loved!"

"Don't understand." Glottis shook his head.

"Because it's a human custom! They express feelings that way. Well, decorating a piece of paper, writing nice things for the recipient... If we make a postcard for Manny — and he'll like it! — he most certainly flirted with you as his boyfriend." Lupe crossed her hands on her chest proudly, content with her plan. 

"Oooo! And what then?" Glottis got excited.

Lupe's plan sounded like a progress in their relationship. 

"Probably you'll start "dating", too. If I understood everything correctly."

"How awesome! How awesome! How awesome!"

Glottis catched up Lupe in his hands, and even if he had to apologize (Lupe didn't allow picking up! Never!) instead of dragging her to make postcards, he was the happiest demon in the Eighth Underworld. What could be better than to unravel a social knot in a relationship with his favorite skeleton?  
****

***

Manny was looking intriguedly at Glottis, who was standing in front of him, moving his fingers across the table for the last ten seconds or so. Their relationship did become more awkward lately — for obvious reasons — and neither of them hurried to fix it. Manny even thought that the current situation is a metaphor to their relationship in general. Glottis didn't know how to say, and Manny didn't know how to ask.

"Do you want to talk about it?" Calavera couldn't help himself. 

"Yes!" Glottis began nodding.

Manny sighed. Yes, he got an answer to his question, but the dialogue didn't go any further. Obviously Glottis came to talk about something, not... Manny was slightly taken aback when instead of talking he was shoved a postcard. And a well-done one — judging by the orderly patterns, perfectly positioned to an anatomical drawing of a heart in the center, it was quite obvious who worked on this. And an angular, pedantic handwriting inside certainly didn't belong to Glottis:

«MANNY,  
YOU ARE BRIGHTER THAN ALL  
CHROME PLATED WHEELS  
(❤❤❤)»

He reread the text one more time to make sure that yes, the warm tickling where his heart used to be quite matches with laughter and the tenderness at the image of Lupe and Glottis making a postcard. And it was clear that this postcard is the most acceptable display of emotions they had, the most comprehensible for both of them... and obviously not the last one. How good it was to finally speak in one language.

"The most romantic thing I've read. Most romantic." Manny murmured flusteredly. "Damn, wait. How... in a moment." 

He jumped up on the table, cursing his short height (it was most inconvenient now), and carefully nuzzled to Glottis' face, hoping not to scare the confused, touch sensitive demon.

"M-Maannyy..." it was the most distinguishable thing Glottis could produce. "Will we... will we be... d-dating now? Lupe said..."

"Dork." Manny said softly, leaving another kiss on his face. "I was pretending we're dating a few weeks ago."

How easy it was to finally speak in one language.


End file.
